


All Night Diner

by alessandralee



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Diners, F/M, Late Night Conversations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-31
Updated: 2014-05-31
Packaged: 2018-01-27 16:26:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1717097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alessandralee/pseuds/alessandralee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>College student Jemma Simmons fines herself at an all night diner.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All Night Diner

**Author's Note:**

  * For [always_a_queen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/always_a_queen/gifts).



In retrospect, it was a terrible idea to completely turn her sleep schedule around. But it was so much easier to get her lab work done at night, when everyone else had gone home. She didn’t have to deal with Jane’s friends popping in when they were bored, Bruce’s frustrated groans when his experiments didn’t generate the results he was hoping for, or Tony’s need to talk nonstop.

So she spent the first few weeks of the semester loading up on coffee, and started sleeping in until just before her lectures started (thankfully, her schedule allowed her to sleep in). And it had worked really well. She had all the space and time and quiet that needed.

Only now she’s done with lab work for the semester, but her body still refuses to fall asleep until 6AM. Of course, her friends from back home are awake, but they still have a few weeks left of classes and can’t keep her entertained. So tonight she ends up at an all night diner a few blocks away from her apartment.

The guy behind the counter barely lifts his head from the textbook in front of him when she walks in. He just slides a menu across the counter and mumbles at her to sit wherever.

She walks past the only other people in the diner, a man and his young son, who is laying down asleep on his side of the booth, while his father circles ads in the classified section of the local paper. She takes a seat at a corner booth and checks her phone, not that anyone would be texting her at this hour. She’s just settled in and opened the menu, when the guy from earlier approaches her table.

“Hello, I’m Grant and I’ll be taking care of you tonight,” he checks the worn leather watch on his wrist and corrects himself, “this morning actually. Can I start you off with some coffee?”

Jemma shakes her head emphatically. “No. No coffee, no caffeine. Just some tea, please. 

He nods understandingly.

“Is chamomile good?”

“Yes.”

He leaves and reappears shortly with a cup of tea and a plate of apple pie, both letting steam off into the air.

He slides the tea onto the table, but holds onto the pie.

“I noticed that you’re not from around here, and I couldn’t resist the chance to have you try our apple pie. The owner says it’s the best in the state and, if I’m lucky’ you haven’t had enough apple pie to know better. It’s on the house.”

Jemma doesn’t mention that she’s had plenty of apple pie before, including when she was a child in England. She doesn’t mention all the pies she and Fitz had to eat when their roommate Skye went through a baking phase. She just accepts the plate with a smile and takes a large forkful of the pie and the ice cream melting on top.

“Wow, this is great,” she says, and it’s not a complete lie.

She’s definitely had better. It’s not as bad as anything Skye made her eat, but nowhere near as good as the pies her Aunt Victoria makes.

When Grant smiles back, Jemma decides the little white lie was worth it. The man is gorgeous. And it’s not just the late night delirium making her think that.

“Want to share?” she asks, and that she blames on the late night delirium.

He smiles again.

“One second.”

She watches as he refills the father’s coffee a few tables away, and then disappears into the kitchen.

He returns with another plate of a different kind of pie and sits down across the book from her.

“I’ll trade you half my blueberry-peach for half of your apple.”

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt "all night diner at 2 in the morning" for an AU meme on tumblr. This was not supposed to be so long. But it is.


End file.
